Harry Potter: Wizards Unite lets Potterheads perform magic in the muggle world
Potterheads, get your wands ready for the new mobile game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite that lets you use magic in your muggle neighborhood.
Twenty plus years after the original Harry Potter novel was first published, the fandom is still having a banner year filled with Potter excitement. Not only is there a Potter play on rotation in several major cities, but another Fantastic Beasts film is expected to hit theaters in the next two years. And now, just days after Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure was unveiled at Universal Studios, the fandom can expect to be wowed by the new interactive AR game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite on June 21.
The developers, Niantic, are already recognized for their Pokémon Go AR game, which was first launched in 2016 and still very popular. Niantic united with Warner Brothers to bring to life a game that is similar to Pokémon and based in the well-known Harry Potter universe. According to Geek.com, the player takes the role of a new recruit for the Statute of Secrecy Task Force and will help a “calamity” that has befallen the muggle world, causing magical items and animals to appear.
As a task force member, the player will collect “foundables” and creatures to bring back to their appropriate magical locations. So, players will be rescuing animals that should be in places like the Forbidden Forest from their local coffee shops and street corners. But no Potter game would be complete without some wand work, which will be heavily used to capture things as well as for defense against any bad guys. Using spell energy will require the collection of food and drinks at selected venues to power up for the assignments ahead.
The fun doesn’t stop there. Random ingredients will pop up so that the player can brew spells just like in the books. Since the AR game requires wizards to unite on this mission, the developers have also customized the experience for every wizard by allowing players to choose a specialty or profession that ranges from Auror to Magizoologist. Combined with hidden portkeys, Death Eaters, and other Potter tricks galore, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is set to be a wild daily adventure.
The mobile will launch in the U.S. and UK on Friday, and news will follow on the launch in other regions. But as we learned from Pokémon Go’s rough start a few years ago, there may be some technical difficulties in the subsequent weeks following the upgrades that come with the game. It was frustrating for fans to deal with months of freezing, crashing, and other tech issues, not to mention that some regional launches took ages to happen. Considering that Niantic has had years of experience with Pokémon Go, hopefully, everything will run smoothly.
The future of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite can be as big as Pokémon Go has dared to be. There may just be events such as festivals in selected cities for players to unite and link up like Pokémon Go Fest. Although, we may not see it for a few years in the making. In the meantime, the official Harry Potter: Wizards Unite website allows you to pre-register for the app until it finally launches at the end of the week.
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What makes you excited to play Harry Potter: Wizards Unite? Let us know in the comments!